This invention is generally concerned with apparatus for processing letters and more particularly with a modularly constructed, computer controlled, interactive outgoing and incoming mail processing system.
The manner in which large business letter mailers prepare and process various types of outgoing business mail has changed in recent years from a predominantly labor intensive activity to one that is primarily handled by computer controlled, automated, paper handling equipment. Thus it is a common practice for large business letter mailers, such as telephone companies, mass merchandisers and private mailers, to employ computer controlled inserters for enclosing monthly bills, remittance slips, return envelopes, questionnaires, purchase order forms and other returnable stationery items in address-window type outer envelopes, and automatically sealing the outer envelopes. The sealed envelopes are then fed to a postage meter, for printing thereon a predetermined postage value, and stacked for delivery to the Postal Service. In some instances, prior to being stacked for delivery, the metered mailpieces may be loaded into other mechanized equipment, for example, for sorting in accrrdance with their destination zip codes or for tying into bundles, or both. In other instances, the metered mailpieces may be loaded into a keyboard operated printer, for adding to each mailpiece a bar code corresponding to the destination zip code in response to keyboard input from an operator. The postage paid, zip and/or bar coded mailpieces, which may also be pre-sorted, are then delivered to the Postal Service.
Assuming a bar code is not provided, upon arrival at the Post Office, the zip code and address supplied by the business letter mailer, are used by the Postal Service for sortation purposes. To that end, the mailpieces are loaded into automated processing apparatus for singulating the mailpieces, and, under the control of a computer, the address and/or zip code information is read from each mailpiece, and translated to a corresponding destination bar code, which is printed on the mailpiece. Thereafter the mailpieces are sorted in accordance with destination information from the computer. Assuming a given mailpiece is already provided with a destination bar code, the same computer controlled equipment, in a different mode of operation, or other automated equipment, is utilized for reading bar codes and sorting the mailpieces based thereon. In general, the Postal Service automatically processes the mail in at least one major Post Office or Distribution Center before the final sortation at the local level. Accordingly, it is a common practice to process a given mailpiece through several sortations for delivery to destinations that are identified by human and machine readable languages. Whereupon, the mailpieces are hand delivered to the addressees, who respond by delivering mailpieces including one or more of the aforesaid returnable stationery items to the Postal Service for processing and delivery to the business mailer.
Some business letter mailers provide a sort code on return envelopes mailed to their customers together with a bill, so that when such envelopes are returned with a payment, they may be scanned for the code, automatically sorted to a sortation location corresponding to the code and thus separated from differently coded and uncoded envelopes by the business mailer. Whereupon the envelopes are hand delivered to the business unit corresponding to the code. At this juncture, the mailpieces may or may not be fed to an automatic letter opening machine, depending upon the volume of mailpieces received by the particular business unit. If for any reason the location of the business unit has changed while the return envelope was in transit, the mailpiece may or may not be delivered directly to the business unit. As often as not, the mailpiece is routed to the old location of the business unit, where the initial recipient may or may not properly route the mailpiece, or do so and fail to inform the mail handling personnel of a change of the location, with the result that they do not institute procedures for the proper delivery of subsequently received mailpieces.
In addition to the foregoing problems, in order to expedite payment of large outstanding bills and thereby reduce the customer "float", some large business letter mailers have instituted special procedures for marking selected return envelopes, included with the mail sent to a particular customer, with a machine readable code which allows such envelopes, when returned, to be sorted from the main stream of incoming return envelopes and handled on an expedited basis. That business letter mailers should have to resort to such procedures clearly emphasizes the inadequacies of their normal mail processing procedures.
Other segments of the business community experience mail processing delays that may have an adverse effect on the reputation of the business mailer. For example, mail order businesses time and again find that a particular product that has been ordered by filling in a pre-coded advertisement is not in stock, but fail to timely notify the customers that the product has been back-ordered and provide a prospective date of delivery. Similarly, insurance companies oftentimes find that additional information is needed from a medical services provider concerning a particular claim, but fail to timely notify the claimant that claim payment will be delayed pending the receipt of the additional information requested from the medical services provider.
The foregoing problems and other difficulties stem from the fact that business letter mailers must classify return mail prior to mailing the same to their customers. The code marked on the return envelope or other return stationery items is the only source of information available for mail processing personnel, or code reading and sorting equipment, to refer to for determining where the return item is to be delivered. However, the business letter mailer may not know the basis for sorting a given return item at the time it is mailed; or know the return destination, but be unaware that the sorting criteria will change while the return item is in transit from the mailer to the customer and back to the mailer; or know the return destination and other information needed for sorting, but find that the other information is not within the scope of the code recognition capability of the incoming mail sorter, for example, instructions to inform a different addressee that a particular incoming return envelope has been received in order to avoid the expense entailed in double billing.
Accordingly:
An object of the invention is to provide improvements in letter processing apparatus;
Another object is to provide outgoing coded stationery item processing apparatus, which includes printing means and means for feeding the stationery item to the printing means, with structure for feeding the stationery item out of the path of travel to the printing means when the code is sensed;
Another object is to provide an interactive outgoing and incoming letter processing system;
A further object is to provide incoming mail processing system including provision for sorting incoming mailpieces, on the basis of sorting criteria established while the mail was in transit to the addressee thereof or thereafter; and,
Another object is to provide a modularly constructed, interactive outgoing and incoming mail processing system including structure for processing return stationery items in consideration of different codes.